SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES

First, understand that your employees are going to use social media with or without you and recognize it for the opportunity that it is. For companies seeking to leverage the social media frenzy the question is not "How do I control these relationships" but, rather, "How do I leverage the value of all these relationships?" The answer lies in understanding how the content you and your employees contribute to the conversation enhances the value of the conversation.

Second, understand that you are building your social reputation, so you don't want to be frivolous or uninteresting. Simply put, "Just got on a plane to Florida" doesn't add value. A very experienced business consultant whom I follow can seem to tweet about nothing other than his current location or state of nourishment.

Third, focus on strategies that empower employees to become brand ambassadors, increase knowledge, share ideas and information and promote collaboration. Businesses should stay ahead of the curve and set some basic guidelines as to when, where, how and why an employee can appropriately discuss aspects of their job or the company.

Some appropriate guidelines include the following:

1) Philosophy: how does social media fit into an employees job expectations and performance

2) Behavioral Expectations: areas of expertise; respectful conduct; timeliness; perspective; transparency & judiciousness

3) Channel expectations: Which sites (communication channels) are appropriate for which types of communications.

4) Contextual Expectations: conversational style; perception; value

5) Content Expectations: use of company proprietary information, including current projects, trademarks, names, logos

Online social Media Strategy & Guidelines

Is your business interested in using social media? Are you struggling to understand the "best practices" for allowing your employees to engage in social networking, as employees? Many of our clients are asking for guidance on how to go about implementing social media as part of their online marketing strategy. This article is intended to be a guide on how to approach incorporating social media into your marketing objectives.

CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY: A 10 Step Guide

1. Social Media Overviews: Create an overview of the top ten social media platforms: Del.icio.us, DocStoc, Facebook, Flickr, Friend Feed, LinkedIn, Scribd, SlideShare, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter & You Tube, including how its used and how your business might participate, e.g. brand management, customer service, knowledge management, networking.

2. Competitive Analysis: Build a social media profile analysis of a competitor or client. This might include what platforms they use, how they participate and some metrics to determine how they are successful.

3. Account creation: Create and populate an executive's social media accounts. Then, set up some time for an intern to teach the executive about the platform. (NOTE: the intern should not participate on behalf of the executive).

4. Research: Are your main media contacts using social media? If so, which platforms? Are they blogging? Using Twitter? Do they want to be contacted through any of these by your company?

5. Template creation: If you have design skills, it might be fun to create customized templates for your firm's Twitter pages or a logo/avatar for your company's employees.

6. RSS: Set up an RSS reader to monitor social media activity around your brand, your client or your industry.

7. Blog monitoring: Of the millions of blogs, probably hundreds reference your brand or industry. Conduct research about the most important blogs in your niche.

8. Blogging: Have employees/interns post about their experiences on your internal or external blog. Not only will it showcase another side to your company, namely that you're empowering your interns, but it also provides your team with important feedback.

9. Web Analysis: Conduct an internal, in-depth analysis of your corporate site. A fresh set of eyes from your target demographic might be useful.

10. Video: Editing images and video are important new media skills. Record a few interviews with executives/customers.